Friday, October 21, 2016

In Zamfara, irate Islamists burned 8 Moslems to death in bid to kill Christian accused of blasphemy

On
August 22, at the Abdu Gusau Polytechnic, Talata Mafara, Zamfara state, a moslem
mob pounced on one of the Christian students, and set about the not-unusual
business of gruesomely terminating his life.He had been accused of blaspheming the Prophet of Islam.

In
his statement in the later national fall-out to the incident, Governor Abdulazeez
Yari of Zamfara provided some details: “From
the intelligence report I got from the security agencies, there was a fight
between two students and I think one of them injured the other and started
shouting that his assailant had abused Prophet Muhammad and other students came
and beat the other boy who is Yoruba and from Kogi State…..Some people said he
was a Muslim and some said the boy was a Christian, so they beat the student
until he collapsed and thought he was dead.” (http://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2016/08/25/blasphemy-yari-explains-how-eight-people-were-killed-in-zamfara/)

One
can only imagine the kind of mauling meted out to the young man – such that he
actually collapsed and appeared dead in every way!The governor’s pretended ambiguity on the
religious affiliation of the assaulted student was based on the fact that the
unnamed student had actually converted from Islam to Christianity.According to Christian students on the campus,
the Islamists had long been looking for an opportunity to KILL the convert,
based on the charge of apostasy, which is punishable by death in Sharia law
which still operates in Zamfara state! (seehttp://christianresponse.org/news/student-counters-official-version-of-eight-christians-killed-in-zamfara-state-nigeria/). To the Islamists, once a moslem, for
ever a moslem!

Anyway,
back to the story. Just as in the case
of the Apostle Paul, (Acts 14:19-20) the young man, after being picked up by
God-sent friends, did revive and he was carted off to the hospital. The irate
Islamists, as they have done on numerous occasions in diverse locations in
Northern Nigeria, simply re-mobilized and violently charged the hospital to
finish the job.Again frustrated in this
objective by Divine providence, the mob reverted to the house of one of the good
Samaritans who reportedly had assisted in moving the supposedly-dead Christian
convert to the hospital.They burned
down the house, and with it, eight innocent souls.

From the settings, it was presumed that
all the eight students roasted to death in the off-campus residential building
were Christian.But the Christian body,
Northern-CAN (not the one affiliated with the Christian Association of Nigeria)
later issued an authoritative statement correcting that presumption. According
to Rev John Hayab, the Public
Relations Officer of Northern-CAN, “Our people on ground confirmed
to us that none of our people were killed. We don’t need to mention those that
were killed.”
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/08/blasphemy-no-christian-killed-talata-marafa-northern-can/

Governor
Yari however provided the identity of those who were killed by the Islamic mob.In his account to ThisDay, he continues: “Then
the students went back to the polytechnic and burnt the shop of the person who
gave his car to rescue the boy and …… threw tyres on the man’s house and burnt
the house down. That was how everyone in the house was killed and everyone
killed in the house was Muslim.”

The
Northern-CAN however expressed sorrow that innocent lives, whether Christian,
Moslem, or whosoever, were needlessly terminated just because government is
refusing to decisively address a nagging national issue or provide adequate
security for the citizenry.Even the
Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI), an Islamic body led by the Sultan of Sokoto, this
time around, lent its voice in condemning what it termed a “recurring” and
“tediously monotonous” issue.The JNI
went on to describe the incident as “most unfortunate.”(http://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2016/08/25/blasphemy-yari-explains-how-eight-people-were-killed-in-zamfara/)

In
what might be the first clear official pronouncement by the JNI on the issues
of blasphemy or apostasy, (both punishable in the Sharia code by death, in
sharp contrast to the provisions of the Nigerian constitution), the body in its
written statement, declares: “The unfortunate attacks that ensued thereafter
the alleged blasphemy of the Prophet … are criminal and also stand condemned.” According to the report in the Morning Star News, the JNI Secretary-General Dr. Khalid
Abubakar Aliyu further added that individual Muslims do not have the authority
to define heresy or label someone as an apostate. See http://christianresponse.org/news/student-counters-official-version-of-eight-christians-killed-in-zamfara-state-nigeria/

About Church Arise! LivingWater Ministries

The Church Arise! LivingWater Ministries (CALM), Ile-Ife, Nigeria is a non-denominational non-profit organization whose vision is to arouse the Body of Christ to the challenges and opportunities of these end times. We seek to warn about the wiles of the devil (on a wild rampage knowing that he has but a short time Rev 12:12); and simultaneously encourage the Children of God to maintain a Kingdom perspective viz-a-viz daily occurring issues, which appearing mundane on the surface, could actually turn out to be of eternal consequences. We dare not fritter away the great priviledge of being on planet Earth at a time like these (see Matthew 13:17).
The vision for the ministry was received at the 1997 God's End-Time Army Conference; and operations commenced January 1, 1998 with the launching of Vol 1 No 1 of the bi-monthly newsletter, Church Arise!.
The ministry was formally launched on April 6 2001 by a team led by Bishop Francis Wale Oke (SOTSM), Pastor Adewole Haastrup (RCCG) and HRH, Pastor Julius Fatanmi (RCCG).
Dr Joshua Ojo is the President.
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